The Thing

Family traditions. We all have them. In our home, it's a huge Christmas Eve party at our house with both sides of our families, or our yearly week long camping trip with about fifty of us from my husband's side of the family. Traditions are what build memories.

One of our family traditions that has come and gone is The Thing. We were unpacking Christmas decorations one year and somebody pulled something out of the box that none of us knew what it was. The plastic container looked like something that a corsage may come in but what was inside was unidentifiable. The container was passed from one child to the next trying to figure out what it was. Did it live once? Is it gross or not gross? It got to me and I determined that 1) it never lived, 2) it wasn't gross, 3) I wasn't sure what it was but it was probably some kind of fake plant matter.

I told the kids that it was The Thing. "What's The Thing?", they asked. "It's a thing that you pass around at Christmas and tell it something", I tell them. "What do you tell it?" "Anything you want."

So began the Christmas tradition of The Thing. I don't remember what anyone told The Thing. I wish I did. It was probably things like "thank Santa for the toys". I do know it wasn't thank you for our blessings type things. We all recognize that we are a blessed family and are grateful for that, but we just aren't the sit around, hold hands, and sing Cum Bi Ya kind of family.

When everyone was done telling The Thing whatever they had to say, we put it back in the Christmas box and forgot about it. The next year, we were pulling out the decorations and someone said, "Look, it's The Thing". We had another round of passing The Thing around and everyone telling it something. Several years went with the same tradition of put it in the box and forgetting about it until someone stumbled on it the next year.

The Thing disappeared and I have no idea when. None of us even noticed until a couple of years ago. Most of the kids are grown now. I have been so grateful that even grown, they come home to help decorate the tree. We were going through our decorating ritual when my daughter asked, "Mom, what happened to The Thing." None of us remember the last time we saw it.

So comes and goes the family tradition of The Thing.